We all managed to survive year one with Destructor…er…I mean Kayden. We celebrated the occasion last Saturday and unleashed her on her first cupcake. I think Tammy was secretly hoping for a face-first, cupcake everywhere dervish, but unfortunately that didn’t materialize. Amazingly, she was borderline dainty with the thing.

Kayden's 1st birthday

Kayden's first cupcake

Kayden enjoying the cupcake

Kayden really enjoying that cupcake

As our gift to her, she was dragged to the pediatrician, poked, prodded, and generally required multiple strong people to hold her down.

• Weight: 21 pounds, 4.5 ounces (50th percentile)
• Height: 31″ (90-95th percentile)
• Head circumference: 18.5″

It looks like she’s growing on a taller trajectory than the last checkup. My theory is she’s willing her legs to grow longer so she can self-propel herself on Xander’s Pooh train.

Kayden hit the 9 month mark last month and yes, it really has taken me this long to get around to posting the vital stats. Here they are:

• Weight: 19 pounds, 11 ounces (50-75th percentile)
• Height: 28″ (75th percentile)
• Head circumference: 18″

It looks like her growth rate is slowing down a bit, unlike big brother. My back thanks you already.

Kayden is walking full speed now. She’s exploring the house at will and leaving a path of destruction in her wake. Favorites at the moment include attempting to climb on top of things, attacking the toilet paper, and tormenting Xander.

As if her size wasn’t a dead giveaway, Kayden definitely loves to eat. She’s been getting more and more solids as of late and she’s loving every minute of it.

Kayden eats egg

Kayden attacks the apple

In case you were wondering what all the late-night screaming was about last week, Kayden was working on sprouting her first tooth. It’s been a challenge trying to get a photo of it since she’s not a fan of the camera’s flash…so every time we bust out the camera, the smiles go away. Here’s the best I could do to document the little lower chopper.

Kayden's first tooth

The economy is still melting down, we’ve had our first major storm of the season, and Kayden is sitting up and semi-crawling!

Kayden sitting up

She’s now at the 7 month mark and from what we all can recall (it’s a haze though), she’s a lot stronger than Xander was at this point. The point here: don’t mess with Kayden.

I forgot to post her vital stats for the 6 month checkup…my excuse? I was on the other side of the planet. Better late than never so here we go:

• Weight: 18 pounds, 1/2 ounce (75-90th percentile)
• Height: 27.5″ (90th percentile)
• Head circumference: 17.25″ (75th percentile)

Xander is up to his usual tricks, hoarding toys and not letting little sis play with anything. Here he is making short work of a bagel.

Xander vs bagel

Kayden went in for her 5 month checkup and reconfirmed that she’s a big kid.

• Weight: 17 pounds, 3 ounce (90th percentile)
• Height: 26.5″ (90th percentile)
• Head circumference: 16.75″ (75th percentile)

The big news is the doc gave the green light for her to start on solid foods. She was beside herself with joy. And again, I use the term “solids” very loosely. She slurped down that gnarly looking rice cereal mess with the quickness. I still remember Xander’s first few tries with solids…he didn’t quite know what to make of it all and a lot of it was running out of his mouth. Not with this one. She was attacking the spoon and getting highly impatient with the slow delivery of food. It got to the point where Tam was letting her drink out of the bowl. Well, what can I say? She’s definitely a Shih.

Here she is doing a food dance.

Kayden pointing to where the food goes.

And for the main event, Kayden eats…apparently it’s a spectator sport.

Two words: careful neglect. Plenty of that going on in this blog. So here’s a massively overdue update.

First, here’s how Kayden sized up three weeks ago on the massively lucky date of 8/8/08 (Olympics, anyone?) for her 4 month checkup.

• Weight: 16 pounds, 1 ounce (95th percentile)
• Height: 25.5″ (90-95th percentile)
• Head circumference: 16.5″ (75th percentile)

So she’s still doing pretty well in the eating department by holding steady in every category from last time. Here she is laughing evilly at something…don’t ask me…just stand back.

Kayden really, really wants to eat solid food. Every time she sees us eating, she smacks her lips and lunges at whatever food is in grabbing range. Xander, you may need to learn how to eat faster. Just warning you now.

It’ll be a few more months before we can actually give her solids, so in the meantime, it’s maximum gnawage on anything she can get a hold of. Toys, fingers, sleeves, and in this case, giraffes.

It’s a good life for Kayden and it shows.

Kayden is getting stronger by the day. And bigger, but that’s sort of a given at this point. Here he is doing her daily push-ups.

I’m definitely going to need loans to feed these two. That’s one mighty plump shrimp roll we’ve got there. Apologies to Xander for the bad haircut dad unloaded on him the other day.

And here they are enjoying a mild July afternoon outside with grandma.

Kayden passed the three month mark on the 4th of July and as a reward, was hauled to the pediatrician’s for some old fashioned fun. Reports indicate that she was fine until the nurse arrived with the tray of shots. Then all Hell broke loose. So either it was an unfortunate coincidence, or she remembered the last time around. This is in stark contrast to Xander where things go south AFTER he gets jabbed.

We got the usual measurements and they again verify what our arms and backs are confirming: she’s a big kid. The biggest change from last month was her weight bumped up to a higher bracket.

• Weight: 15 pounds, 1 ounce (97th percentile)
• Height: 24 3/9″ (90th percentile)
• Head circumference: 16.25″ (75th percentile)

So here she is at three months, showing off what little hair she has as well as her kung-fu grip.

What a better way to celebrate turning two months old than to be dragged to the pediatrician’s office and getting jabbed a bunch of times? She’s definitely trying to get on the same growth trajectory that big brother is on. Here are the vitals:

• Weight: 13 pounds, 9 ounces (75th percentile)
• Height: 24″ (90th percentile)
• Head circumference: 15.75″ (75th percentile)

Kayden seems to be more interested in thumb sucking than Xander ever was. Case in point…

The doctor commented that she has really good control of her head for her age. I guess that isn’t much of a surprise given how interested she is in looking around at everyone and everything.